Exercises · 9.28
Q.Describe the usefulness of water in biosphere and biological systems.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Water is indispensable to the biosphere and to biological systems in multiple interconnected ways:
- Universal biological solvent: its high polarity lets it dissolve a huge range of nutrients, salts, gases and metabolites, enabling their transport within organisms — e.g., as blood plasma in animals or sap in plants.
- Reaction medium and direct reactant: most biochemical reactions occur in an aqueous medium; water is also a direct reactant, e.g., in photosynthesis () and in the hydrolysis of food macromolecules (proteins, starches, fats) during digestion.
- Temperature regulation: water's high specific heat capacity and high latent heat of vaporisation allow organisms to buffer against rapid temperature changes and cool themselves efficiently (e.g., sweating, transpiration).
- Structural role: water maintains the turgidity (rigidity) of plant cells via osmotic pressure, and forms a major fraction of the mass of living cells and tissues. …
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